A Carver Center sixth-grader is among the 285 spellers hoping to take home the trophy from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which begins today in Washington, D.C.

Anna Ngo will be taking to the national stage after beating 37 other contestants in the 28th annual Midland Reporter-Telegram Regional Spelling Bee in March. After spelling “subtrahend” and “generator” correctly, she clinched the champion’s dictionary and an all-expenses-paid trip to the D.C. competition.

“It is an honor to do it,” Anna told the Reporter-Telegram after winning the title. “I really have never won anything before.”

Anna’s victory marked the end of the Rubio family dynasty. Danielle Rubio won the regional bee in 2006, and her younger siblings, Thomas and Gabrielle, won 2011-2014. Thomas advanced to the semifinals at the Scripps bee in 2012.

But now that the Rubio children are too old to compete, other kids have a shot at the national level.

For weeks, Anna has been preparing for the national competition by reading the dictionary and quizzing herself with flash cards for two hours a day on average, “and if I don’t have homework I study for it in all of my free time,” Anna said.

“My friend at school, whenever she sees me she’ll take my book and say the word out loud and help me study before classes start,” she said.

In the many weeks leading up to the competition, Anna has put on hold her other interests -- such as sewing and competitive dance -- as she prepared for the big time.

Anna is a first-generation American and one of three daughters born to Vietnamese parents who have been living in Texas for nearly 16 years. Though she has a command of the English language, Anna, now 11, comes from a household that once spoke primarily Vietnamese.

Her ability to speak Vietnamese, however, has eluded her over the years she’s been in school, but she is still able to understand it and hopes to one day visit the country of her heritage, she said.

Last year, two winners were declared co-champions of the bee. Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth won on the words “stichomythia” and “feuilleton,” respectively.

Champions of the bee receive a $30,000 cash prize from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a $5,000 cash prize from Words With Friends, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete reference library from Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica reference materials valued at $1,100.